


A Fair Price

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 23:03:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17334059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Jack’s been alone for 300 years. He holds a little grain of resentment to the other Guardians for leaving him alone for that long, struggling to figure out what to do.The Guardians, on the other hand, are rather solitary creatures in their own way. They don’t think of 300 years alone except doing their job with barely any other persons contact as unusual, or even something worth mentioning. Not being believed in as far as they think was the worst part. But now that Jack’s believed in, he should be fine. And they can withdraw back to their own places, but keeping a better eye out for Pitch.It’s up to the Guardian of Fun to show them all what a friend is like- a real friend."It’s hard to define friendship, but maybe that doesn’t matter.





	A Fair Price

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr 6/15/2013.

None of the Guardians are sure when it happened, but they all come to realize that they have become friends. It seems strange, somehow. Weren’t they friends before? Now, though, they can all make that statement positively.

 Yet Tooth especially wonders why she can’t pinpoint those four important days: The Day I Became Friends With North, The Day I Became Friends With Jack, The Day I Became Friends With Bunny, The Day I Became Friends With Sandy. She’s responsible for memory, isn’t she? But as she slowly gains more and more knowledge of how friendships work, among humans at least—since she is spending more time out in the field now—she comes to realize that this is one of the more normal things about the Guardians’ friendships. It’s always difficult to pinpoint when you become friends with someone.

 So the “when” is unknown and doesn’t matter. The “who” is known, and he matters very much. It’s Jack Frost that really brought them all together. Without him, they would no doubt have gone their separate ways after defeating Pitch. They knew how to call on each other if there was a need.

 But Jack had started to do—well, little things really. He would show up at the Tooth Palace fairly frequently when Tooth took her breaks. He encouraged North to actually play some of the games he was sending out, to actually play with some of the toys he made. Somehow, he managed to get Bunny to leave the Warren when it wasn’t Springtime. He spent enough time around Sandy that he was soon the best at reading his dreamsand out of all of them—though they’re all getting better as time passes.

 To list the actions Jack took, however, paints an incomplete picture at best. Tooth thinks that maybe that is another part of the way friendship works. Jack did plenty of specific things, sure, but mostly he was just…around. With Jack, they all got used to having someone else near them—not all the time, but often enough that it became comfortable. Normal. Better than before.

 It’s turned out to be surprisingly nice to know that there are others—Jack first and then the other Guardians—who she can talk to, that know her well, but aren’t heavily involved in what she does. She loves her mini-fairies, but there are few surprises for her when she talks to them. With the other Guardians—with her friends—there are always surprises. And good or bad, she wants to be a part of them all.

 There’s a flipside to all of this, though. One of the surprises she had had while becoming Jack’s friend was learning that he had been crushingly lonely for the years he wasn’t believed in. There’s something in Jack that’s always needed friends. She and the other Guardians hadn’t been like that. But now they have Jack, and Jack has given them friendship and fun.

 It’s a gift beyond measure, but it does have the price—Jack knew that price as his own loneliness. For the rest of the Guardians, Tooth simply hopes they never have to pay it. But she knows it’s there, waiting to be collected, each time she hopes Jack will visit her today and he visits her tomorrow instead.

 Jack has given them friendship. But he has also given them the capacity for loneliness.

 It is still worth it.


End file.
